And narrower scrutiny, that I might learn
In what degree or meaning thou art called
The Son of God, which bears no single sense.
The son of God I also am, or was,

And if I was I am; relation stands;

All men are sons of God; yet thee I thought
In some respect far higher so declared.16

All men are Sons of God, but Christ is doubly so, through birth and through merit; therefore he has a special title. Not because he is a man of superior merit, or because of the Virgin birth - Milton insists in no wise on these facts; the two corner stones of Christianity, the Crucifixion and the Birth from the Holy Spirit, play no noticeable part in his conception of things- - but because Christ is the Greater Man, the body of the blest; because Mankind is regenerated in him, because in Him Satan is tempting the whole of the new man. The historical fact of the life of Jesus is not very important for Milton. Regenerated Man existed before Jesus came on Earth. Adam himself was saved, having expiated his fault,

And one bad act with many deeds well done.16

The Patriarchs were part of Regenerated Man, and probably all the great men of antiquity, whom Milton considered as inspired by God, although Jesus had not yet come. They were all members of Christ, whose mystical body is "not confined to place and time, inasmuch as it is composed of individuals of widely separated countries, and of all ages from the foundation of the world." " For in them all divine Reason spoke, and Christ is divine Reason. Man cannot be saved by any external power; the regeneration must take place in himself through his 16 P. L., XI, 256.

15 Ibid., IV, 512-21.

17 Treatise, IV. 363.

own will, that will which is a fragment of God's; in every man Christ descends. Vicarious atonement is no Miltonic conception, and that is why the crucifixion plays so small a part in his conception of human destiny. He speaks little of it in Paradise Lost, and not at all in Paradise Regained, which was the poem for it.

In order to be saved in Christ, we must participate in his merits, save ourselves; even as we participate in Adam's fall by allowing "evil concupiscence," "the old man," to dominate in us. The ancients who mastered "the old man" in them were saved, were in Christ even before Jesus lived. God says to the Son when he agrees to become Christ:

.. Be Thou in Adam's room

The head of all mankind, though Adam's son.
As in him perish all men, so in Thee,

As from a second root, shall be restor❜d
As many as are restor'd, without Thee none.
His crime makes guilty all his sons; Thy merit
Imputed shall absolve them who renounce
Their own both righteous and unrighteous deeds,
And live in Thee transplanted, and from Thee
Receive new life. So man, as is most just,
Shall satisfy for man, be judg'd and die,
And dying rise, and rising with Him raise
His brethren, ransom'd with His own dear life.
So heav'nly love shall outdo hellish hate,
Giving to death, and dying to redeem,

So dearly to redeem what hellish hate

So easily destroy'd, and still destroys

In those who, when they may, accept not grace.18

This passage is one of the keys of the poem and gathers together several essential ideas. We must remember here what Blake calls "the double vision." It is true that the

18 P. L., III, 285-302.

179

Son of God became a man among men and sacrificed himself; the life of Christ as told in the Gospels is literally true. But that would have no value if, at the same time, or rather from all time, Christ had not made himself into the regenerate part of each of the elect, recreating them in him. This second creation takes place through the will of the creatures,

them who renounce

Their own both righteous and unrighteous deeds,

And live in Thee transplanted.

The last five lines give a key to the "double vision" of the whole poem of Paradise Lost: the drama takes place not only in the outside world -in Paradise for the Fall, in Jesus's life for the Regeneration - but also in each of us; at every moment of our lives Satan is "hellish hate," Christ is "heav'nly love." In the last two lines, God transcends the time of the action, which is the beginning of the world, and speaks from the higher sphere of his divinity, above time, for all times:

and still destroys

In those who, when they may, accept not grace.

The poet is in the seventeenth century. Even like the twin expressions, "A Paradise within thee" and "myself am hell," these two lines transfer the whole drama into man's consciousness, and make it eternally present. Thus Milton believes (when he thinks fit) in the letter, and yet considers the facts as symbols of spiritual realities.

God causes man's will to be accomplished. Therein lies destiny. This is true in psychology as in politics. After the Fall, man may have the will, but he has no

longer the power to carry out his will. But to God, will is sufficient; he will give the power: that is grace. Thus will predestines to salvation; Christ gives the possibility. God says,

All hast thou spoken as My thoughts are, all
As My eternal purpose hath decreed:

Man shall not quite be lost, but sav'd who will;
Yet not of will in him, but grace in Me
Freely vouchsaf'd; once more I will renew

His lapsed pow'rs, though forfeit, and enthrall'd
By sin to foul exorbitant desires.19

The power of man is small, for evil even as for good. Therefore God, even as he helps the good in their virtue, will help the wicked in their evil:

But hard be hard'nd, blind be blinded more
That they may stumble on, and deeper fall.20

And thus for Satan:

the will

And high permission of all-ruling Heaven
Left him at large to his own dark designs;
That with reiterated crimes he might

Heap on himself damnation.21

22

But none is predestined to perdition; predestination "must always be understood with reference to election,' by the will of the elect, who are parts of God fulfilling themselves. For each may carry out the will that is in him; in him take place his fall and his regeneration.

19 P. L., III, 171–77.

20 Ibid., III, 200-01; and Treatise, IV, 50-51, where Pharaoh's heart is hardened by God.

21 P. L., I, 211-15.

22 Treatise, IV, 45, and the whole of chapter IV.

CHAPTER V
POLITICS

T is finally, in applying his ideas to the affairs of men,

I'

that Milton tries to justify the ways of God. On

that ground the question originally arose; here the whole philosophy of Milton reaches its ends.

Milton, in his system of politics, sets down the principles of what man ought to be, claiming complete liberty for regenerated man, and delivering into the avenging forces of destiny unregenerate men and nations.

I. LIBERTY

Christian liberty is that whereby we loosed as it were by enfranchisement, through Christ our deliverer, from the bondage of sin, and consequently from the rule of the law and of man; to the intent that being made sons instead of servants, and perfect men instead of children, we may serve God in love through the guidance of the Spirit of Truth.1

.. Paul expressly asserts that "the law is not made for a righteous man," I Tim. i. 9. Gal. v. 22, 23.2

Such is the basis of liberty; since Christ is in the elect, the laws of men do not apply to them.

A. Moral liberty: no law

The old moral law, the Mosaic decalogue, is abolished:

. . . the entire Mosaic law was abolished. . we are therefore absolved from subjection to the decalogue as fully as to the rest of the law.3

The spirit of the law abides in each of us:

1 Treatise, IV, 398-99; cf. the whole of chapter XXVII.
2 Ibid., IV, 391.

3 Ibid., IV, 387.